Audiobooks narrated by Fenella Woolgar

If she was to make a mark on the world, she would have to do so in another way... 'Bittersweet ... dazzling' Guardian 'Deeply pleasurable ... the ending made me cry' The Times 'Told with a wealth of detail and narrative intensity' Penelope Lively It is 1932, and the losses of the First World War are still keenly felt. Violet Speedwell, mourning for both her fiancé and her brother and regarded by society as a 'surplus woman' unlikely to marry, resolves to escape her suffocating mother and strike out alone. A new life awaits her in Winchester. Yes, it is one of draughty boarding-houses and sidelong glances at her naked ring finger from younger colleagues; but it is also a life gleaming with independence and opportunity. Violet falls in with the broderers, a disparate group of women charged with embroidering kneelers for the Cathedral, and is soon entwined in their lives and their secrets. As the almost unthinkable threat of a second Great War appears on the horizon Violet collects a few secrets of her own that could just change everything... Warm, vivid and beautifully orchestrated, A Single Thread reveals one of our finest modern writers at the peak of her powers.

Tracy Chevalier (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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A Woman's Courage

Book 3 in the heartwarming wartime saga in the Home Fires series, perfect for fans of Rosie Clarke and Annie Groves. In the midst of World War II, the members of one village WI fight harder than ever to help the war effort . . . But behind closed doors, each is fighting a more personal battle. Pat Simms is reeling from her own role in her abusive husband's death, and the new freedom before her is daunting. Sarah Collingborne is struggling with the absence of her husband, who is stranded in a POW camp abroad, and trying her best to fill his treasured place in the village. Meanwhile, Teresa Lucas is anxious about her future as a parent, and her friend Alison Scotlock is on the verge of starting a new relationship. And Miriam Brindsley's good luck might be about to change . . . Grieving for men already lost and anxious for those still away fighting, the women of Great Paxford must rely on each other. Amidst the complexities of broken relationships, loss and friendship, this group of very different women must work together to find a way through.

Maria Malone, S. Block (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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A Woman's War

S. Block (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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An American Rose

The Kennedys were the most famous family in England when Joseph became American Ambassador in London. But daughter Rosemary's behaviour began to cause the family increasing concern. Award winning writer Charlotte Jones' play is inspired by the lives of two of JFK's sisters, 'Rosemary' Kennedy, who died in 2005, but underwent a prefrontal lobotomy aged 23 and Kathleen 'Kick' Kennedy who married the heir to the Duke of Devonshire.

Charlotte Jones (Author), Carl Prekopp, Fenella Woolgar, Lisa Eichhorn, Lydia Wilson, Tilly Gaunt (Narrator)

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Blood, Sex and Money: A BBC Radio 4 serialisation of Zola's epic saga

Glenda Jackson stars in this award-winning BBC Radio series, inspired by literature's greatest ever whistleblower, Émile Zola, and his epic saga of the Rougon-Macquart family 'Unmissable' Daily Telegraph First published between 1870 and 1893, Émile Zola's 20-book cycle chronicling four generations of the Rougon-Macquarts was a shocking exposé of the decadence, degradation and moral decay of 19th-century France. It included some of his greatest novels, among them his masterpiece, Germinal. These innovative, ambitious dramas, first broadcast on Radio 4 over 24 hours in 2015-16, is a radical reimagining of Zola's classic series, introducing us to 104-year-old matriarch, Dide, imprisoned in an asylum in southern France. Trapped, but omniscient, she broods over her 'family of wolves'. As a young woman, she gave birth to two dynasties that exemplified French society. One legitimate - rich, powerful, obsessive and corrupt. The other illegitimate - poor, vulnerable, weak and depraved. In these three seasons, themed around blood, sex and money, we come to know the members of her extended family intimately - the good, the bad and the misguided. As we follow their highs and lows, we are taken deep into the heart of France's 'Second Empire' and drawn into the tragic, farcical reign of Napoleon III as it marches forward towards a modern, industrialised society. This groundbreaking series won Best Drama at the BBC Radio and Music Awards 2016 and Best Adaptation at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2017, and boasts a star cast including Robert Lindsay, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Holliday Grainger, Samuel West, Anna Maxwell Martin, Paul McGann, Georgina Campbell, Jack Lowden and Alison Steadman. Also included is a 30-minute bonus programme, The Life and Work of Émile Zola, in which Glenda Jackson travels to Paris to discover how Zola's experience and the physical and cultural landscape in which he lived influenced his great novels.

Emile Zola (Author), Alison Steadman, Angela Griffin, Anna Maxwell Martin, David Schofield, Emma Rigby, Fenella Woolgar, Georgina Campbell, Glenda Jackson, Holliday Grainger, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Paul Mcgann, Robert Lindsay, Samuel West (Narrator)

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Dangerous Women: The compelling and beautifully written mystery about friendship, secrets and redemp

Brought to you by Penguin. The devastating and thought-provoking tale about female anger, subservience and, ultimately, strength, inspired by a true story London, 1841. Two hundred Englishwomen file aboard the RAJAH, the ship that will take them on a three-month voyage to the other side of the world. They're daughters, sisters, mothers - and convicts. Transported for petty crimes. Except one of their number is a secret killer, fleeing justice. When a woman is mortally wounded, the hunt is on for the culprit. But who would attack one of their own, and why? Based on a true story, Dangerous Women is a sweeping tale of confinement, loss, love and, above all, hope in the unlikeliest of places. © Hope Adams 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Hope Adams (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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Daughters-in-Law

Rachel has always loved being at the centre of her large family. She has fiercely devoted herself to her three sons all their lives,and continues to do so even now they are all grown up. They are, of course, devoted to her - she and Anthony, their father, hold the family together at their big, beautiful, ramshackle house near the wide, bird-haunted coast of Suffolk. But when Luke, her youngest, gets married, Rachel finds that control is slipping away. Other people seem to be becoming more important to her children than she is, and she can no longer rely on her role as undisputed matriarch. A power struggle develops which can only end in unhappiness; her three daughters-in-law want to do things their own way, and so, to her grief, do her sons...

Joanna Trollope (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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Dot: The Complete Series 1-3

A rollicking wartime comedy set in the personnel department of the Cabinet War Rooms, starring Fenella Woolgar as Dot. "Little chills the blood so much as the phrase 'new Radio 4 comedy'. But, dear reader, be un-chilled... a lovely, period-mocking script delivered with its eyebrow at precisely the right level of archness," - The Times "Dot's quirky wit is all of her own," - The Observer "Excellent, eccentrically comic," - The Daily Mail. Dot's had quite enough of making tea in the Cabinet War Rooms. When she finds a cryptic message in the newspaper she enlists the help of her gals - will this be the big break Dot's been waiting for? Follow Dot as she gets squiffy over Agent Bertie Whiff-Whaff, concocts stirring yet pithy slogans for the war effort, and goes on a mission to St Horribly Vulture's School for Boys to enlist a teacher for... "shhhh... Bletchley Park!" Dot will do her bally utmost for King and Country in these spiffing tales of derring-do (and, occasionally, derring-don't), whether investigating suspicious deaths, outwitting dastardly spies, or helping the Prime Minister with his French vocab. Cast: Dot...Fenella Woolgar Myrtle...Kate O'Flynn Peg...Freya Parker Millicent...Jane Slavin Peabody...David Acton Other parts played by Roslyn Hill, Stephen Critchlow, Adie Allen, Alicia Ambrose-Bayly, Susan Jameson, Sean Baker, Brian Protheroe, Sam Rix, Nick Underwood, Scarlett Brookes, David Sterne, Nicholas Murchie, John Dougal, Emma Handy, Ryan Whittle, Stephen Hogan, Elizabeth Counsell, Sean Murray, John Lightbody, Lauren Cornelius and introducing Officer Background as himself. Written by Ed Harris. Produced and directed by Jessica Mitic (Series 1 and 2) and Sasha Yevtushenko (Series 3)

Ed Harris (Author), , David Acton, Fenella Woolgar, Freya Parker, Jane Slavin, Kate O'flynn (Narrator)

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How to Be a Good Wife

Marta and Hector have been married for a long time - so long that she finds it difficult to remember her life before him. He has always taken care of her, and she has always done everything she can to be a good wife. But when Hector comes home with a secret, their ordered domestic life begins to unravel. In the shadows there is a blonde girl that only Marta can see. And she is trying to tell her something . . .

Emma Chapman (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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Life After Life

What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath. During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale. What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to? Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. With wit and compassion, she finds warmth even in life's bleakest moments, and shows an extraordinary ability to evoke the past. Here isKate Atkinson at her most profound and inventive, in a novel that celebrates the best and worst of ourselves.

Kate Atkinson (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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Life After Life: A Novel

What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can -- will she? Darkly comic, startlingly poignant, and utterly original -- this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best.

Kate Atkinson (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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MIDWINTER MURDER: Fireside Mysteries from the Queen of Crime

An all-new collection of winter-themed mysteries from the master of the genre, just in time for the festive period. There's a chill in the air and the days are growing shorter… It's the perfect time to curl up in front of a crackling fireplace with this winter-themed collection from legendary mystery writer Agatha Christie. But beware of deadly snowdrifts and dangerous gifts, poisoned meals and mysterious guests. This compendium of short stories, some featuring beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, is an essential omnibus for Christie fans and the perfect gift for mystery lovers. INCLUDES THE STORIES: The Chocolate Box A Christmas Tragedy The Coming of Mr Quin The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest The Clergyman’s Daughter The Plymouth Express Problem at Pollensa Bay Sanctuary The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge The World’s End The Manhood of Edward Robinson Christmas Adventure

Agatha Christie (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Fenella Woolgar